
A secluded garden becomes the stage for a quiet, unsettling game of influence. Two hidden figures watch a delicate young woman, Sylvia, as she gazes at a tiny, wrapped object in a window seat, their whispered incantations hinting at a charm meant to sway her fate. The younger observer, Edward Hamilton, boasts a keen intellect and a mischievous smile, while his companion frets over the moral weight of their meddling.
Sylvia, an orphan raised under the rigid care of a bachelor uncle, has spent her life drifting in imagination, nurturing a tender, almost reverent attachment to her distant cousin Edgar Vaughan—whom she envisions as an ethereal lover. Now under the guardianship of the fashionable Mrs. Grosvenor, she must confront the expectations of an arranged marriage and the fragile world she has built for herself. As the first act unfolds, listeners are drawn into a richly textured portrait of longing, secrecy, and the subtle power of unseen forces.
Full title
Sylph Etherege (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")
Language
en
Duration
~16 minutes (16K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2005-11-01
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1804–1864
Best known for dark, beautifully crafted classics like The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, this major American writer explored guilt, secrecy, and the moral pressure of life in Puritan New England. His stories mix psychological depth with a haunting sense of history that still feels fresh today.
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